Phoenix Suns small forward Mikal Bridges midseason grade: B+
The Suns traded Kelly Oubre Jr. with the confidence to have Mikal Bridges as their starting small forward. In that leap of faith, Phoenix was rewarded. In former seasons Bridges often started on the bench but now is one of the first names on the team sheet.
Bridges has taken big strides from his first two seasons to become a more reliant scorer and competitive defender. Boosted by more minutes per game, Bridges has increased just about every category. The big jump is his points per game. Increasing from 9.1 points per game to 13.7 he is gaining more confidence as a scorer. Bridges takes more shots from midrange and three and is scoring at a more efficient rate as well raising his three-point percentage from 36% to 42%.
Adding a new dimension to his game makes Bridges a versatile player on a talented Suns team.
His continuous defensive effort has helped the Suns become a top-rated defensive team, an aspect they struggled with last season.
Arguably the best defender on the team, Bridges is often guarding the opponent’s best player each night. Defense wins championships and right now defense is winning games for the Phoenix Suns.
Bridges’ improvement in scoring is additionally taking more of the load off of Booker and is now a player opposing teams need to take notice of.